Emily Urquhart will be reading from her Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize-shortlisted essay collection, Ordinary Wonder Tales, at Trident Booksellers & Cafe in Halifax! The reading and conversation is hosted by the Dalhousie Creative Writing Program. There will be an array of treats, and books will be for sale and signing from King’s Co-op Bookstore.
The event will take place on Wednesday, October 30 at 5PM.
More details here.
Grab Ordinary Wonder Tales here!
Shortlisted for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction
A journalist and folklorist explores the truths that underlie the stories we imagine—and reveals the magic in the everyday.
“I’ve always felt that the term fairy tale doesn’t quite capture the essence of these stories,” writes Emily Urquhart. “I prefer the term wonder tale, which is Irish in origin, for its suggestion of awe coupled with narrative. In a way, this is most of our stories.” In this startlingly original essay collection, Urquhart reveals the truths that underlie our imaginings: what we see in our heads when we read, how the sight of a ghost can heal, how the entrance to the underworld can be glimpsed in an oil painting or a winter storm—or the onset of a loved one’s dementia. In essays on death and dying, pregnancy and prenatal genetics, radioactivity, chimeras, cottagers, and plague, Ordinary Wonder Tales reveals the essential truth: if you let yourself look closely, there is magic in the everyday.
Emily Urquhart is the author of three books of nonfiction including the essay collection, Ordinary Wonder Tales, a finalist for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. She has a background in journalism and a doctorate in folklore and draws on both in her writing. She is a five-time National Magazine Award nominee for her journalistic work and has won gold and silver. She lives in Kitchener, Ontario with her husband and two children where she is a nonfiction editor for The New Quarterly and teaches creative writing and science communication at the University of Waterloo.
